1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording apparatus which ejects a liquid droplet onto a recording medium so as to record an image thereon.
2. Description of Related Art
As an inkjet printer which records an image on a recording sheet as a recording medium by ejecting ink droplets onto the recording sheet, there is known one including a feeding mechanism and an inkjet recording head. The feeding mechanism includes a plurality of rollers and an endless feeder belt wound around the rollers. The recording head has an ejection surface in which a plurality of nozzles open so that ink droplets are ejected therefrom onto the recording sheet placed on an outer circumferential surface of the feeder belt. In such an inkjet printer, it is known to inspect the state of the nozzles, that is, to check that an ink droplet can be normally ejected from each nozzle, by ejecting an ink droplet from each nozzle to form or print a test pattern on a test print area provided at a part of the outer circumferential surface of the feeder belt, and then reading the printed test pattern by means of a line sensor disposed downstream of the recording head with respect to a sheet feed direction, which is a direction in which the recording sheet is fed by the feeding mechanism. For instance, such a technique is disclosed in JP-A-2005-104147.
This technique involves a belt cleaning mechanism operated to cleanse the test print area each time the test pattern has been printed on the test print area. However, it is difficult to completely remove the contamination on the test print area by the belt cleaning mechanism only, and sometimes it is necessary to implement a manual cleansing of the test print area by a user or an operator. Since the feeder belt and the recording head are disposed close to each other in the inkjet printer, the manual cleansing is troublesome or awkward. Further, a hand of the operator may contact the recording head during the manual cleansing, which leads to contamination of the ejection surface of the recording head or displacement of the recording head.